


Define

by glass_damask



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Gen, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 15:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18346508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glass_damask/pseuds/glass_damask
Summary: Ritsuka makes the mistake of hanging out in Chaldea's library too long.





	Define

While the library was usually quite silent, even when its usual inhabitants occupied its ink-perfumed space, it felt noticeably sadder than usual as the young mage dropped herself down on a loveseat.

  Having come back from the latest singularity physically and emotionally drained, Ritsuka was as eager as she could possibly be at the thought of simply spending a night away curled up in Chaldea's labyrinth of a library- however, the girl was blissfully unaware of this ideal concept shattering the moment the library's door opened.

  The Caster was quiet as he struggled to close the door behind him and walked into the room, book in hand. The entire room was dimly lit; that, added with the fact that Hans didn't have his glasses on him at that moment, made seeing a bit more difficult than usual. Despite that, the servant was pretty quick at scoping out his favorite seat in the library's lounge area.

  He was halfway to his preferred chair when he heard the distinct sound of a page being turned. He immediately whipped his head in the direction of the noise, and was honestly a bit surprised to see his master of all people sitting there, reading.

  His curriosity ended up getting the better of him: "What are you doing here?"

  Ritsuka jumped at that unnervingly rich baritone of Hans' and nearly crushed her thumb as she slammed her book shut. Had she not been holding in her breath until that moment she would have shrieked.

  She barely managed to greet the servant with a squeaky, "Hans!"

  "That didn't answer my question," he said as he casually dropped his original plan of reading in complete solitude; instead choosing to crawl up onto a chair closer to his master. Neither thought to acknowledge this.

  The girl laughed and hesitantly opened her book back up again, debating whether or not to continue where she left off.

  Hans was also pretty quick at picking up on her hesitancy. "I hope my presence here isn't getting in the way of your reading," Hans said with his head already stuck in his own book. He stated his hope with more sarcasm than he'd originally intended, but he still got his point across.

  Ritsuka brought a closed fist up to her mouth as she giggled. "No, no- you're fine," she tried to assure the heroic spirit.

  He didn't seem convinced, and she didn't seem to relax anymore than she already hadn't.

  Considering that the Caster had barely gotten time that day to get officially acquainted with his new book, he wasn't in the mood to put it off for an issue that Ritsuka wasn't even going to bring up, so he quickly went back to reading.

  Awkward silence soon filled the room, and went on unabated for a good twenty minutes before it was eventually broken with a muttered expletive.

  Curious, Hans peaked his head out from behind his book and quietly watched as Ritsuka fumbled to pick up something she dropped.

  It was a notecard covered with scribbled notes. "What's that?" he asked. Once again, contrary to what the girl assumes, there was no disgust in his tone; only plainly-stated curiosity.

  Ritsuka nevertheless almost jumped at his question ("For God's sake!" he internally groaned) and blurted out, "It's just my bookmark, is all." She seemed embarrassed of it, and Hans wasted no time at all in pointing that out. "I'm just a little embarrassed about how much is written on it..."

  Hans quirked an eyebrow, and she rushed to elaborate. "I- just usually write down words and phrases that I don't know from whatever book I'm reading, so I can look them up later."

  Hans hummed as he watched Ritsuka flip the makeshift bookmark over in her hand: even without his glasses it was easy for the servant to tell that the notecard was almost entirely filled up with words apparently unknown to the girl.

  The heroic spirit's eyes now locked onto the card and remained glued to it. "How long have you been reading that book?"

  "Oh," Ritsuka, who was blankly fanning the card back and forth in her hand at that moment, stopped and said, "a little over a month, now." She immediately grew suspicious- "Why do you ask?"

  Hans ignored her question and asked his own. "And you haven't looked any of these words up yet, have you?"

  "No."

  "Do you at least have the page numbers written down for any of the words?"

  The mage grew defensive at how suddenly cross he sounded. Too tired and embarrassed to verbally answer him, though, she shook her head no.

  Hans, after swiftly reading through the page he was on, closed his book with a sigh and outstretched his hand at her; he made a couple opening and closing gestures as he said, "Hand me the notecard."

  Ritsuka pursed her lips, visibly uncomfortable, and gave him the piece of paper, watching with obvious distress as the servant skimmed over the long list of terms and phrases.

  "Assuming you've been reading this book for a while now, you should have added the pages these words were found on," Hans pointed out with a bit less venom than Ritsuka imagined he'd use when scolding her. "In any case, why you wouldn't look these words up the moment you found them is beyond me," he went on with a flair of his wrist. "After all, if you're trying to understand what you're reading, you should be able to clearly remember the context all of these words are in, because the definition's useless if you just look the words up a month later!"

  The girl moaned and drooped her shoulders. "Look, are you gonna define them for me or not?"

  Ritsuka was surprised by her sudden tone; Hans seemed amused. "Considering I can't do much else, I might as well..."

 

It was well into the night by the time the two finally made it through the list in its entirety. Besides the occasional snide remarks made by the Caster- "How do you _not_ know what a 'chatelaine' is?"- the night was more pleasantly spent than the girl could ever imagine.

  Ritsuka, worried that her prolonged absence might worry Mash sooner or later, decided it was time to hit the hay.

  "Thanks, though," she said as she slipped her bookmark back into the novel she barely got to read that night.

  "Don't mention it."

  The mage stood up, getting ready to leave, when Hans got a good look at the book her list was derived from. Having read it a while before, the servant sneered and, evidently feeling a need to comment on it, did so without a second thought. "That book's plot structure is absolute trash, and its attempt at a plot twist is even worse"- he laughed sardonically- "I can actually understand now why you wouldn't care enough to look into those words."

  Ritsuka paused and stared at her servant for a minute, deadpanned, but quickly got over it in a fit of giggles. "Whatever," she said as she started for the door. "Goodnight, Hans!"

  The author chuckled and said, "Goodnight," back, as he finally resumed his own reading.


End file.
